and quince dentally, the nominee for that job, senator john kerry, was on capitol hill today for his confirmation hearings, as you know, diane. >> that's right. a new and dangerous threat. thank you, martha raddatz. >>> and we're going to move onto other headlines tonight, because a third of the country is seeing the big chill deepen. last night, we showed you the cold blast stretching from maine to maryland. but tonight, the arctic air is marching south, all the way to alabama. and as abc's alex perez tells us, even firefighters are getting frozen in place. alex? >> reporter: well, diane, this deep freeze making it difficult for firefighters in all those states to do their job. here in chicago, this warehouse fire started on tuesday, reignited this morning and as you can see, all the w water crs are dousing on this structure has turned it into an urban igloo. burning ice. an unusual sight in a tremendous battle for chicago firefighters working in near zero temperatures. >> slips, falls increase, the fos brit. your body has to work hard just to keep yourself warm. you're going to get